Aprende español sobre la guerra contra las drogas aquí.
by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher
June 30, 2024
Welcome to Spanish Drug War 101, where we will be learning the Spanish language while trashing the Drug War in all 18 of its verb tenses. We will start our lessons today, appropriately enough, with the verb "odiar," the Spanish word for "hate," so that we can easily communicate our contempt for the counterproductive policy of prohibition when we're down south. Speaking of which, get those field trip forms signed for our upcoming flight to San Jose del Pacifico in Oaxaca, Mexcio. We will be going down there this fall to learn about the time-honored Zapotec practice of ingesting mushrooms for medicinal and psycho-spiritual purposes.
Don't forget to click the audio button above to hear the sample sentences for all 18 of the possible Spanish conjugations of the verb "odiar," to hate. And stay tuned for more Drug War Spanish in the weeks to come!
Ten Tweets
against the hateful war on US
The outlawing of opium eventually resulted in an "opioid crisis"? The message is clear: people want self-transcendence. If we don't let them find it safely, they will find it dangerously.
"Now, now, Sherlock, that coca preparation is not helping you a jot. Why can't you get 'high on sunshine,' like good old Watson here?" To which Sherlock replies: "But my good fellow, then I would no longer BE Sherlock Holmes."
I just asked New York Attorney General Letitia James how much she was getting paid to play Whack-a-Mole. I pointed out that the drug war created the gangs just as liquor prohibition created the Mafia.
The government causes problems for those who are habituated to certain drugs. Then they claim that these problems are symptoms of an illness. Then folks like Gabriel Mate come forth to find the "hidden pain" in "addicts." It's one big morality play created by drug laws.
I can think of no greater intrusion than to deny a person autonomy over how they think and feel in life. It is sort of a meta-intrusion, the mother of all anti-democratic intrusions.
The whole drug war is based on the anti-American idea that the way to avoid problems is to lie and prevaricate and persuade people not to ask questions.
To oppose the Drug War philosophically, one has to highlight its connections to both materialism and the psychiatric pill mill. And that's a problem, because almost everyone is either a Drug Warrior or a materialist these days and has a vested interest in the continuation of the psychiatric pill mill.
If America cannot exist without outlawing drugs, then there is something wrong with America, not with drugs.
If any master's candidates are looking for a thesis topic, consider the following: "The Drug War versus Religion: how the policy of substance prohibition outlaws the attainment of spiritual states described by William James in 'The Varieties of Religious Experience.'"
Mariani Wine is the real McCoy, with Bolivian coca leaves (tho' not with cocaine, as Wikipedia says). I'll be writing more about my experience with it soon. I was impressed. It's the same drink "on which" HG Wells and Jules Verne wrote their stories.